Chapters 7 and 8 of John take place during the Feast of the Tabernacles, celebrating the Passover when the Jews left their dwellings to live in tents. In the celebration there were rituals of water and light. For today's verse we'll go to John chapter 9 where we see these symbols being used once again and we see Jesus stating once again "I am the light of the world". The symbols of darkness and light are now revealed in physical terms as Jesus does the "work" of the Father and heals a blind man.
Richard Burridge writes, "The actual healing from blindness to seeing happens
early (Joh. 9: 7), but it leads rapidly to another
debate about Jesus' identity which causes division. As the blind man comes
more fully into the light, so we discover that 'there are none so blind as those
who will not see'. As the blind man journeys not just out of physical darkness,
but also from ignorance to a growing faith, Jesus' opponents travel from
certainty through increasing doubt to rejecting the light. And all the while
others are watching — the disciples, the man's parents, the bystanders, and
even us, the readers. What will be our journey be, into light, or darkness healing,
or rejection?"
So it is today. People are watching and hearing what God is doing around them. What will the reaction be?
May you rejoice as did the blind man in this passage.
"Light of the world, you stepped down into darkeness, opened my eyes let me see."
mikevw@bellsouth.netmikesvotd.blogspot.com John 9:1-16
9:1 Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
2 "Teacher," his disciples asked him, "why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?"
3 "It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins," Jesus answered. "He was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him.
4 All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end.
5 But while I am still here in the world, I am the light of the world."
6 Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and smoothed the mud over the blind man's eyes.
7 He told him, "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam" (Siloam means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing!
8 His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, "Is this the same man — that beggar?"
9 Some said he was, and others said, "No, but he surely looks like him!" And the beggar kept saying, "I am the same man!"
10 They asked, "Who healed you? What happened?"
11 He told them, "The man they call Jesus made mud and smoothed it over my eyes and told me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash off the mud.' I went and washed, and now I can see!"
12 "Where is he now?" they asked. "I don't know," he replied.
13 Then they took the man to the Pharisees.
14 Now as it happened, Jesus had healed the man on a Sabbath.
15 The Pharisees asked the man all about it. So he told them, "He smoothed the mud over my eyes, and when it was washed away, I could see!"
16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath." Others said, "But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?" So there was a deep division of opinion among them. NLT
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